St. Louis college student shoots aid officer, self

Jan. 16, 2013
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One of the two men shot Tuesday afternoon at Stevens Institute of Business and Arts in St. Louis is wheeled from the downtown school. Police said a a part-time student shot the financial-aid director and then himself. / David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, via AP

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

A student shot the financial-aid director at a St. Louis business college and then turned the gun on himself, KSDK TV reported.

Sources told the station the administrator, identified as Greg Elsenrath, was shot in the chest with a handgun in his fourth-floor office at Stevens Institute of Business & Arts about 2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET). He and the gunman are reported in critical condition.

The gunman shot himself when police approached him in a stairwell between the third and fourth floors, says KSDK, which is owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent company. Officers recovered a gun.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said he was "hopeful" both would survive. He did not describe the gunman's wound.

Police sources identified the gunman as 34-year-old Sean Johnson, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Initial reports said the gunman was 21 years old.

Dotson said the student had attended part-time, on and off, for the past four years and that he knew Elsenrath. The shooting apparently stemmed from a dispute over financial aid.

Late this afternoon, in action related to the shooting, police and SWAT officers entered a home near Sherman Park, several miles from the school.

The private, for-profit school, in the downtown Loft District, offers two- and four-year degrees in business administration, fashion and retail, interior design, tourism & hospitality and as paralegals. Known today as SIBA, the school began as Patricia Stevens College in 1947.

Current enrollment is roughly 180. About 40 to 50 students were in classes at the time of the shooting. The school announced on its Facebook page that it would close until Jan. 22.